Neuronal dysfunctions and impairments are caused by toxic aggregation-prone proteins, and they are characteristic to many neurological disorders, which include, for example, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, prion disease, polyglutamine expansion diseases, spinocerebellar ataxia, spinal/spinobulbar muscular atrophy, spongiform encephalopathy, tauopathy, Huntington's disease, dystonia, and so forth.
The proteins coding the toxic aggregation-prone proteins causing the diseases and the genes coding the proteins have been identified. The normal metabolizing enzymes recirculate the proteins participating in the permanent circulation of synthesis and decomposition. In the mutation of genes, misfolded proteins accumulate and decompose in an abnormal manner. Such misfolded proteins are known to incur the formation of inclusion bodies and plaques of neurons that may indicate a damage of the neurons. It is therefore important to understand cellular mechanisms and to identify molecular means essential in reducing, inhibiting and improving the misfolded proteins. In addition, reasonable and effective therapeutic methods for those diseases can be exploited from the understanding of the effects of protein misfolding and aggregation on the survival of neurons.
Korean Patent No. 100595495 (registered on Jun. 23, 2006) discloses a diagnosis kit of Alzheimer's patient against normal persons that uses a secondary antibody-marker conjugate and a chromogenic substrate solution for the marker to participate in the antigen-antibody reaction of a specific amyloid β.
Korean Patent No. 1173677 (registered on Jul. 7, 2012) suggests a pharmaceutical composition for preventing or treating a disease associated with amyloid β accumulation, which composition contains EPPS(N-2-hydroxyethyl)piperazine-N′-(3-propanesulfonate)) represented by a specific chemical formula as an active component.
As illustrated in the patent documents of the prior art, the conventional methods use a biosensor to detect the impedance or protein concentration of blood necessary for a diagnosis and compares the impedance or protein concentration of blood with a reference value of a normal person to diagnose normal or abnormal protein aggregation or the associated diseases.
But, the measurements (numerical values) of the protein concentration or impedance of blood are not enough to clarify the difference between a normal person and a patient, so it is impossible to tell a patient from a normal person or to make a diagnosis with accuracy. Namely, the measurements (numerical values) of the protein concentration or impedance of blood do not have a clear distinction between a normal person and a patient enough to definitely tell the patient from the normal person, resulting in reducing the accuracy and reliability of the diagnosis.